Life in the Sun ~ Part 2

MOORE FAMILY CHRONICLES

               I have mixed feelings about our trip to South Carolina. I really did have a great time but being attached to a kid made things hard and a bit depressing. Everyone was skinny, swimming, and drinking (things I couldn’t really do). I felt like I was anti-social. I was always sitting on the outside of the group, taking care of Olivia, and watching what was going on.

               With that being sad, I saw A LOT of things =-) What I loved the most was how the two different clans came together after years of not seeing each other and it was as if there was no time lost between them. Even the “babies” (take that word with a grain of salt- it includes all the fourth generation kiddos) who had never met acted as if they see each other every day. Okay, so Carson and Ben had met two years before but really, that first time they were both about 18months. Being close to cousins’ was not an experience I had growing up and definitely don’t have now. I really appreciate being able to be a part of that. Even I felt like I had known that side of the family my whole life.

EVENTS AND ADVENTURES IN SOUTH CAROLINA:

               We spent the first night in a hotel by the airport. Saturday morning we picked up our rental cars and headed in to town. What seems to be a tradition when heading to the east coast, we spent the afternoon shopping. No not at shops only known in the south, we went to the outdoor mall. For some reason it seems like they have way cuter clothes over there! We got to Charleston Friday night and the reunion shenanigans started later the next week so we had some time to kill.

               We spent mornings at the beach (by we, I mean everyone but Olivia and I-way to hot out for us) and headed inland for dinner. I did attempt to get some sun at the beach but I only lasted 20 minutes and came in pretty pink. Sunday Philip and Savannah showed up!!! They aren’t family but at this point they might as well be! I’ll try to figure out how to add their website to my blog so you can see how amazing their photos are. As the week went on family started to show up! Their rental house had a private pool so we spent a ton of time over there- in the pool, at the beach, but mostly…eating. =-)

               Now for the whole point of this trip…The Grandparents 50^th Wedding anniversary! There was soooo much food and it was soooo delicious! After we ate the Grandparents exchanged rings, and then we watched a video Bill made with pictures of their life together! After the video Heidi and I convinced Grandpa he needed to finally have his first dance with his wife. It was pretty awesome!!!!

               We spent the last day at the farmers market in Charleston. It was nothing compared to Seattle’s but it was still neat to see. Olivia got over heated pretty fast, so I ended up not seeing all of the booths. It was pretty warm that day and there is no air conditioning at an outdoor market!

               Overall the trip was pretty amazing. Thank you to the Moore’s, Yockey’s, Spillane’s, Casey’s and Kenney’s! Hopefully you can all come to Seattle next summer!

Life in the Sun ~ Part 1

TRAVELING WITH A NEWBORN

               We left cold cloudy Seattle for a too hot Charleston. I have only gone out once during the day to “enjoy” the weather and I lasted 20 minutes! Olivia isn’t allowed outside if the sun is shining, unless we are going from one air conditioned place to another. If you’ve never traveled with a newborn, it sure is an interesting experience…

               First off, breast feeding on an airplane- awkward and uncomfortable. Airplanes are not made for big people (like myself) and then trying to maneuver a baby (who is still working on the whole breastfeeding thing) while keeping a sheet over you so no creepy guys see your boob is not an easy feat. Aside from nursing you have to deal with diaper changing.

               Surprisingly there is a changing table in the bathroom but again, big people and planes don’t mix. We decided since Olivia is so small we would just change her in our laps. It worked out pretty well! We put Chris’s tray down with a blanket on it. I changed her while Chris held her. When she wasn’t eating or being changed she was sleeping.

               Olivia has really been a trooper. Meeting so many new people and being moved from hot to cold or cold to hot. Traveling with her really hasn’t been “hard”; she is a pretty easy baby. What is hard is that I am stuck to her/she is stuck to me. If I was bottle feeding I could just hand her off to someone and head out for the day. Since I’m not no matter what I choose to do I need to make sure I am back in about 2 hours. Should be plenty of time but when it takes 30 minutes to get down town it doesn’t leave you much time to enjoy it. Doesn’t give me much time to enjoy the beach or pool. With only a few people to watch her inside I only had a few opportunities to even take advantage of leaving her.

               Long story short, I don’t mind traveling with a newborn I just wish that we had traveled somewhere a little cooler so I could have had her outside. Nothing like flying cross country and spending 90% of the time in a rental house with a whole lot of nothing to do.

New baby blog…

It has been forever since I’ve written a blog. Partly because I am lazy and partly because I didn’t have much to say. I wanted to write about the stupidity of drama on Facebook but that involved too much thought. I also wanted to write about preparing Rubicon for Olivia. Didn’t get to any of it. The past few weeks, month even I’ve been in totally hibernation. Really only left the house for school or food. I figure you all would want to hear the oh so exciting story of my labor and first week as a mom- much more exciting than reading about a spaztic pit bull.

At the end of my rope with not being able to move, having to pee every 5 minutes, not being able to get up out of a chair without help, but most of all sick of itching and sick of hives; Chris and I decided to try a few things to get me into labor. We finally decided to try castor oil. My fabulous friend told me how much to take and how many eggs to mix it with. Chris and I spent a few days talking about when the best time would be to do it just in case it really worked. After my first day of feeling the “nesting” instinct but not being physically able to do anything about it, I decided it was time to try the castor oil.

I was told I would get the runs about an hour after eating my castor oil eggs and then labor should start 5-8 hours later. I ate about 2/3’s of the eggs at about 6:30pm, by 9pm I was having contractions. A quick shower, a phone call to triage, my water breaking and by 1015pm we were on our way to the hospital. By the time we got to the hospital I was already 7cm! The nurse couldn’t tell if Olivia was head down so I had another nurse check, she couldn’t tell so the Dr brought the ultra sound machine. Sure enough she was head down.

Once that was confirmed they wheeled me to my delivery room. It was after 11pm and I was 9cm. Still no epidural and I was screaming in pain. No one told me how bad back labor is! Finally it was time for my epidural. It took a nurse and Chris to hold me still and another nurse in my face telling me to breath in order to actually get the epidural. I labored drug free and pushed with the help of drugs.

The epidural took about 10-15minutes to kick in and the checked me again…Time to push! About 10 minutes later little Olivia was born. 12:35am May 23, 2011. 7lbs 5oz and 20inches! Almost exactly 6hrs after eating my yummy castor oil eggs- 3 ½ hours of labor.

I’m super exhausted. I want to post more details especially since it’s been 3.5weeks but it’s time to finish packing for vacation. Tomorrow Olivia takes her first plane trip to meet her Great Grandparents!!!

Pregnant Life....

              Less than six weeks to go and so much on my mind! I feel like I am itching more each day but the hives have yet to return. I’ve discovered if I can get my mind off of it I can usually get the itching to stop, at least for a short time. I’m wondering why my stitches were taking out when they were. Both of the holes in my leg are still pretty big. 2 hours after my stitches were taken out I managed to rip open one of the incisions (hole in my leg). When I went back in they used glue and tape and said I would be fine; told me to keep the tape on for another ten days. Yeah, it came off on its own in about five. It’s going to take those spots a long time to heal. They could have left the stitches in for another week or two! Putting on socks and shoes is nearly impossible; especially on my right foot thanks to my awesome dermatologist. I have to be very careful of how I move my right thigh so that I don’t re-rip open the wound. Being pregnant is challenging enough without all of this other craziness!

               Things that have become “normal” that amuse me (okay some of them annoy me): I waddle everywhere I go, my bladder feels like it is going to explode every 15-20minutes even if only drops come out when I go (remember, I mentioned I tend to tell all the details, if you want them or not), bending over takes every ounce of strength and energy, no matter how much I eat I am still hungry (or will be again in 5 minutes), and despite how much or how little I sleep at night I take a million little power naps during the day. Don’t forget the backaches and mood swings! For those of you ladies who worked, raised kids, or did ANYTHING while surviving your third trimester, I give you props. This is tough and I’m only taking one class!

               The nursery is pretty much put together which is comforting evening though Olivia will be spending her first few months in my room. I feel like we have the majority of what we need to survive the first month of parenthood without having to make too many trips to the store. At some point I am getting a rocking chair from my sister which is super exciting. The next few weeks the plan is to put movies and music on my laptop so we have something to keep us relaxed/entertained at the hospital. I guess we should get our bag of stuff together too, just to be safe. And because I’m a nerd, I’m writing up a doggie care sheet so I won’t have to worry about my brats while I’m trying to have a baby!

               Chris started his first official day on his new schedule last Saturday and I’m already feeling spoiled! We spent most of his three days off together because he didn’t have to catch up on sleep! Not to mention that for the past 8months I have spent a whole 1-2 nights a week actually sleeping with him. It’s been heaven having a warm body next to me at night. I realized I use about 6 pillows at night when I’m alone I only use 1-2 when the hubby is home. We all of the sudden have a lot of extra pillows on the bed!

               Recent events in life have me thanking God and being even more grateful for having such an amazing husband. We went through a really rough first year as a couple and in only three short years I feel like we are in a really good spot. We call each other out when it’s needed, say I love you when it’s not needed, and we find humor in the little things (like our crazy spaztic dogs or the fact that I can’t put on my own shoes). We can look back at all the shit we have been through and still believe that God created the two of us for the specific purpose of being together. We are two very different people who, at the same time have so much in common.

I love that Chris calls me out on my bull shit (like telling me I need a hobby in response to me saying I’m bored and depressed). It took him a long time to get up the courage to do it and I am glad that he does! I love calling people out (some refer to it as “spitting in your clients soup”), I’m brutally honest and I like pointing things out that you may not see. With that being said, I appreciate it when other people do the same to me. It may hurt to hear at first but it’s said out of love =-) Well hey, talk about a random ending. What can we take away from tonight’s blog? I’m not the biggest fan of being pregnant but I can’t wait to be a mom, I have the most amazing husband in the world, God is capable of miraculous things, and always tell the truth-it’s better to be hurt by the truth than to be lied to and be hurt by the lie later on (that’s my opinion anyway).

My amazing husband should be home from work any minute which means it’s time for bed =-)

My First Ever Blog....Go Me!

I was informed that I need a hobby so I decided to take up blogging. My blogs will most likely contain moaning, groaning, venting, ranting…well, I’m sure you get the idea. One thing that I can promise is that they will be random, as my life seems to be the majority of the time. For my first ever blog I figure I should give you some background information. I am making the assumption that only my friends and family will read this but it gives those of you who don’t really know me the opportunity to meet me =-)

Let’s start with why I was told I need hobby. I am the type of person who thrives on being overly busy. Don’t get me wrong, I love to relax and be lazy but there is something about the stress of a full load that makes me feel better about myself. Last September I was working full time between a pet supply store and babysitting, I was a full time student at Central Washington and not even two weeks into my first quarter I found out I was pregnant. Loving my two jobs, my school program and the fact that I was pregnant I decided to take on the challenge.

It worked for a while but eventually my body shut down on me. In the first 4 weeks of being unemployed I managed to pull my groin, get the stomach flu and a nasty head cold. As soon as I was fully recovered I had to deal with finals. So far, the hardest quarter of my life. I decided to take it easy spring quarter. I’m taking one 5 credit class with nothing else on my plate but being happy and pregnant. Easier said than done. Like I mentioned before I actually enjoy the stress of having too much to do so an empty plate tends to cause chaos. I get bored which leads to a mean, grumpy and usually depressed lady. Not fun for anyone, especially me and the hubby; which is part of why I love him so stinking much! He called me out on my boredom/depression and gave me ideas to do something about it. Blog wasn’t on his list but he was very happy when I told him what I was up to!

Now that you know why the blog and most of my pregnancy story, I’ll finish the pregnancy story! About 3-4 weeks ago I got these itchy bumps that started in my stretch marks and on my knees. Within days I was covered, shoulders to my toes and yes that did include my butt (I should have warned you a little earlier-I tend to tell the truth, honestly and bluntly, including the gross details “normal” people don’t want to know about). The bumps started on a Friday, I tried to survive the weekend with some Benadryl but got no sleep. A call to the Dr’s and I was informed it was most likely a lovely pregnancy rash called PUPPS-all of 1% of pregnant woman experience this.

To rule out any other weird possibilities a full blood work was run. All came back saying I was healthy. I was put on a 6 day treatment of steroids. The first few days (higher dosage) really helped and by day four I was all hives again and was sent to a dermatologist. Have you ever been to a dermatologist? That is one scary place! I got down to my skibbies, had three different people stare at me and then I signed some paper saying I understood the risk of scaring and infection. I had no idea what was going on until I got stabbed with a needle, they took two pea sized chunks out of my leg and left me with four stitches. Talk about a crazy day! I get test results tomorrow along with my stitches taken out. The dermatologist put me on a 4 week dose of steroids, I’m 10 days in and doing great! Thanks to the steroids I no longer need Benadryl to sleep at night! I am enjoying in some very strange way, the fact that I can’t bend over, having to pee every 5 minutes and the walk to the bathroom causing me to lose my breath. Little miss Olivia Grace is due in 45 days and I can’t wait!

I feel like I have so much more random stuff to share with you all but my brain is tired from writing psychology stuff all day! So this is where my random chatter comes in. I would be surprised if you can’t notice the difference between awake me and sleepy me writing =-)

Enough about my cute little bun I’m cooking and on to the dogs! This blog is named after Bezel who is my 5.5 year old female pit bull but I do own another dog. His name is Rubicon, he is about 1.5 years and also a pit bull. Pit bulls are one of the most amazing breeds I have ever come across and they are most definitely not for everyone. I’m for sure ready for a break! They are stubborn, pig headed and strong. All it takes is one person to say it’s okay to jump and it takes months to get them to stop. If they decide they don’t want to do something there is no convincing them otherwise. They are full of crazy spastic energy that never seems to end- despite going to doggie daycare, they have very emotional faces, they wear their heart on their sleeve, they know when you just need some sweet sweet puppy loven, they are amazing with kids and they have this way of snoring that warms your heart so much you just might cry. Okay, sometimes I do want to skin them alive, but most of the time, I just want to love on them!

Yup, that’s about all you’re getting from me. I’m pooped and my fabulous husband is on a wonky schedule meaning he will be home in a few hours!!!!